1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assistant apparatus for fastening a webbing, which aids an occupant of a vehicle to fasten a webbing around the occupant.
2. Description of the Related Art
An assistant apparatus is known which facilitates getting in and out of a rear seat of a vehicle for a rear seat occupant and which aids a front seat occupant's action of fastening a webbing around her or him.
A conventional assistant apparatus has a reach arm mounted on a center pillar of a vehicle, which arm has a free end provided with a slot through which a webbing passes and is supported thereby. Before the occupant sitting on a front seat fastens the webbing around the occupant, the reach arm is swung in a front direction of the vehicle to a position in which an intermediate portion of the webbing is located near the shoulder of the occupant positioned on the side of a door of the vehicle. Thus, the occupant in the front seat can easily grip the intermediate portion of the webbing and fasten it around the occupant.
In the past, two types of driving devices have been used for causing the reach arm to swing toward the front of the vehicle before the occupant in the front seat fastens the webbing: one has an electric motor for driving the reach arm, and the other uses, instead of an electric motor, a wire which interconnects the reach arm and a door of the vehicle for interlocking them together.
In case that the electric motor is used for driving the reach arm, a gearing mechanism is generally necessitated to transmit the driving force of the motor, which makes the driving device rather complicated and costly. In addition, the assistant apparatus becomes rather large in size, so that it becomes hard to provide a space in a vehicle for the installation of the assistant apparatus.
On the other hand, if the reach arm is mechanically interlocked with the door of the vehicle, the tension occurring in the wire between the reach arm and the door when the door is opened will act as a resistance to the operation for opening the door, so that greater efforts of the occupant are necessitated for opening the door and the occupant will then feel rather unpleasant. Further, such arrangements including a wire interconnecting the reach arm and the door are also costly because a large amount of labor is necessitated to install the wire in position.